I saw the girl in the cornflower stalks, from this summers flowers, while I was meditating on the back porch. There she was made of long dried flower stems and curling leaves.
Her hair was pulled back in a braid, she had a flower on her dress, stilts for legs and twigs for arms.The coneflower girl moved, shifting in and out of herself, when the wind blew, but always swayed back again, like a tree, on her long legs.
That’s what I wrote on my blog on December 31st of last year. On the same day I started creating my Coneflower Girl.
Since then she’s been hanging on my studio wall, waiting.
The images of the Coneflower Girl as herself and as a child in the birdcage under the stoop, one of my imaginary friends when I was a kid, were already done. So was the first sentence of the story, stitched in blue and red. The only other thing there, was the painted petals of the coneflowers.
Today I walked around my studio wondering what I would do next. I fussed with some fabric, thinking of potholders, emptied bags of scarps wondering why they didn’t inspire me.
Nothing was working.
At noon, I looked at the Coneflower girl and decided it was the day to figure out the rest of the story and stitch it on the old quilt backing.
It was obviously what I was supposed to be doing, I know because it came so easy.
The words flowed as I wrote them down and when I stitched them. Stitching the coneflowers was a joy.
I stitched my Coneflower Girl to look like the girl I saw in the stalks of the coneflowers that December morning. I braided wool from my sheep Lori to make her arms and those legs that will carry her where ever she wants to go.
This is such a personal story I’m not sure if it speaks to anyone other than myself. I’m not sure what happens with it next.
Maria, I can tell the personal nature of your story. No one needs to understand but you. I came to say I was attracted to the coneflowers. Each with its unique organic shape. Just like the real flowers. Many species have a kind of perfect imperfection and you captured that so well.
Thank you Lois. :) Stitching the cones flowers was the most fun I had when making this piece Lois, I love your description of the “perfect imperfection”. I liked the way they came out so much I was thinking of making more for something else, just not sure what that is. They were very freeing. It seems you picked up on that and that you know coneflowers very well.
This actually spoke to me, Maria. How I felt trapped in a bird cage as a child, until I set myself free by expressing the trauma. And how I feel so much more empowered now, like your coneflower girl stretching her long legs with the strength to walk proud for who she is.
Ah, of course you get it Barb. We have shared experiences. I think about that girl in the cage and I know she was me also. Thank you.
xo
:)